I posted too quick...

What should I expect him to do? Can the scratch be painted over? The finish on the cabs is painted lacquer, at least that's what he called it. The doors are sprayed professionally in a factory. I don't see how he can remove this cab without ruining the one adjacent to it...Also crown moulding has been added on top.

close-up...

This is a pic of the kitchen so far... The kitchen is really small, under the little open shelves is the sink cabinet and the dishwasher...

I am literally in the same boat and really annoyed! Our master vanity has a chunk of wood missing and a scratch and there are marks all over my cream colored closet cabinets. Many of our doors and wood casings have gauges in them from careless workers. We are not paying until everything is rectified. It's disappointing, though, to say the least! Let us know how it works out for you.

You have to first of all calm down. A bit of minor issues during the install is perfectly normal. Installation isn't over until the installer has done the touch up. The vast majority of small nicks and scrapes will be able to be touched up and you can't tell a thing. You need to partner with your installer on how to do that, because you will be making those same scrapes and scratches and need to know how to do the touch up yourself.

Honestly if the workers treated your kitchen as though it was their own you wouldn't have issues. It seems to me that it is like with any other job, you get so used to doing it that you stop treating items with kid gloves.

Several years ago we hired a contractor to install a roof, two new doors, paint the doors, and do some other small jobs inside. Everything that they did was sub-par. All they wanted to do was get the job done and it didn't matter that they weren't doing it properly.

I know that small things can happen but I feel that if it isn't rectified to your satisfaction hold the final payment until it is. If that mark isn't off the cabinet when they finish it will always bother you. An accident that you cause is a much different cup of tea than one that is caused by a careless installer.

Wow your kitchen looks gorgeous! What is that paint color on your cabinets?

It is so disheartening to have careless workers in our homes that we are working so hard on. I agree that if it were their own things, this would not happen. It is far too common.

Who is doing the install? Is it the cabinet company or your own hire? I would withhold payment until you figure out what to do. Once they get paid, they will be gone.

The problem with "touch-ups" is that after a while, the paint discolors or chips off more easily. Looking back at our kitchen installation, we should have demanded replacement of the more obvious dents/chips on doors and drawer fronts.

The other problem with touch ups is that nothing you do yourself is going to match that lacquer. We had our door/drawer fronts made by a company that professionally sprayed a custom paint color by SW on them and decided to save money by making the crown molding and end panels ourselves. Even though we painted them the same color, it looks different because of the finish. To me, it all looks fine because it's uniform (all the crown is that tiny off color, so it looks intentional that way) but I can imagine that just doing a touch up to a cabinet that has that lacquer on it will make it look different.

I'm sorry you're going through this. Is that the only place you're really unsatisfied with? Will something be there that will draw the eye away from it?

I don't know if I can put something there to draw the eye away from the scratch. My sink and faucet will be there, every time I'll be at the sunk I will see the stupid scratch!

The installer is the cabinet maker himself. He makes the boxes and outsources the doors. I'm not sure what the color is, it wasn't a Benjamin Moore .

I know he won't be able to fix if just with a touch up :(
The rest if the install is ok

White (and gray) are notoriously hard to match perfectly.

They often require intermixing of every can before starting (even from the same batch).

You might get some relief by having the entire panel retouched.

Light is never perfectly uniform over an object, so slight changes at corners do not usually show very much without lighting set up to show the difference (45 degrees to the corner uniform light source).

This can be used to advantage even with wall paint.

If you run short or failed to intermix change to a new can at a corner (and inside corners are often better for this since they are less likely to get uniform lighting).

This post was edited by brickeyee on Wed, Apr 17, 13 at 14:10

That's amazing he did that to his own work. You have to wonder.

Hope you can get it resolved satisfactorily. Sorry if you posted it and I forgot, but what did he say?

Brickeyee- do you mean undercounter light? I will have Led strips behind the light valence. Will that make it worse?

Snookums - I haven't spoken to him yet, he wasn't here today. I don't know why I am so nervous to approach him. I don't see how he can fix it without removing the whole cabinet to be resprayed.

I spoke to the contractors partner and she said not to worry whatever is not acceptable they will fix, even if they have to take down the cabinet to have it repainted.

I dont know why I feel so nervous about these things !

We have Dynasty Omega cabinets and they sent a tech out to fix a couple spots that came from the factory. The contractor fixed a couple bumps and it looks great. I'm sure there's a little something here and there, but we've done a couple something's over the past year too! :)

Our GC and KD worked together and replaced everything with dings. Hang in there!